Most people think of baseball, basketball and football as the quintessential American sports. Soccer, though, has been growing in popularity with both fans and athletes for the past decade.

One local coach decided to capitalize on this trend and feed his passion by creating a mobile app to help players improve their skills. Footy Training, founded by Armand Dikranian, is a mobile app and "comprehensive development tool" for soccer players.

Dikranian was Assistant Coach of the 2014 NCAA Championship-Winning FSU Women's Soccer team. Following that, he decided to build a business to help train and support players all across the country. The Footy Training app contains gamified drills, exercises and lessons for up to five years of training.

The app has five different modules for players to use and includes hundreds of instructional videos. It can help train players on things like ball-handling, scoring, passing and general dexterity. Users can "compete" against real-life pros from the U.S. National team, as well against friends and teammates who use the app.

"Every coach starts out at youth soccer, so for me, this provides a platform for youth players to get better beyond whichever team I'm working with. It can allow me to reach three-million soccer players versus only 20."

Soon, Footy Training will roll out new training features focused on off-the-field development. These include lessons on sportsmanship, leadership, lifestyle and nutrition. Dikranian is also planning a feature that allows coaches to assign drills and exercises to players and watch their progress.

Dikranian wants the app to be a way of giving back to the soccer community which he's a part of. He's also working on a Footy Foundation which would provide scholarships to players who exhibit off-the-field character and excellence.

The app launched in November 2017 and there are 15 soccer clubs using the application already, including two in Tallahassee. In 2018, Dikranian plans to bring on new users and new soccer clubs across the U.S., as well as roll out the new features. To learn more about Footy Training and download the app, visit footytraining.com.

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